[Rinsewind]

Does anybody know if you can remove the hard drive from the V+ box, and connect it to a PC, to archive recordings? My PC has the old IDE connections, in addition to the newer (red?) serial connectors. Any advice is gratefully appreciated.

[MostynDS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rinsewind

Does anybody know if you can remove the hard drive from the V+ box, and connect it to a PC, to archive recordings? My PC has the old IDE connections, in addition to the newer (red?) serial connectors. Any advice is gratefully appreciated.

I would imagine (but I don't know) that if you do this, you won't find video files as such, you'll find files containing transport streams instead.

I remember that the Humax 9200T box featured a USB port to make transfer easy. But the transport streams on the HDD need to be captured frame by frame on the PC after you've transferred them. There are utilities that will do that, but it's hard work, even for the most powerful PCs and the results can lack audio sync.

I'm sure there will be someone along soon who can provide you with a concrete answer, but I suspect that connecting the HDD might be the easiest part of what you want to do. Far easier (in my opinion) to buy a Pinnacle Dazzle USB video capture device and grab your stuff from the SCART.

[stuntmaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MostynDS

I would imagine (but I don't know) that if you do this, you won't find video files as such, you'll find files containing transport streams instead.

I remember that the Humax 9200T box featured a USB port to make transfer easy. But the transport streams on the HDD need to be captured frame by frame on the PC after you've transferred them. There are utilities that will do that, but it's hard work, even for the most powerful PCs and the results can lack audio sync.

I'm sure there will be someone along soon who can provide you with a concrete answer, but I suspect that connecting the HDD might be the easiest part of what you want to do. Far easier (in my opinion) to buy a Pinnacle Dazzle USB video capture device and grab your stuff from the SCART.

You are indeed correct Mostyn.

the hard drive is split into partitions, one containing the Program Mediaroom (the vision interface), one holding as a temp cache (for on demand, EPG data, and live TV for pause/rw), and the other containing the recordings.

recordings are in a .TS format as you said, Transport Stream. Natively you can get MediaCenter to play back those as mediaroom is a CE variant of MediaCenter.

VLC, mediaplayer classic and Mplayer can all play and decode .TS streams. My satbox records in TS and VLC handles them fine.

however though if you wish to archive to a DVD then think again, best solution would be to get a USB capture card and connect the vision's scart to that and record in. Note you cant record on demand as it's macrovision locked and you will need a bypassing unit that is deemed illegal.

if you want to use the PC as a means for backup then go for it.

Hope this helps.

[MostynDS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuntmaster

You are indeed correct Mostyn.

the hard drive is split into partitions, one containing the Program Mediaroom (the vision interface), one holding as a temp cache (for on demand, EPG data, and live TV for pause/rw), and the other containing the recordings.

recordings are in a .TS format as you said, Transport Stream. Natively you can get MediaCenter to play back those as mediaroom is a CE variant of MediaCenter.

VLC, mediaplayer classic and Mplayer can all play and decode .TS streams. My satbox records in TS and VLC handles them fine.

however though if you wish to archive to a DVD then think again, best solution would be to get a USB capture card and connect the vision's scart to that and record in. Note you cant record on demand as it's macrovision locked and you will need a bypassing unit that is deemed illegal.

if you want to use the PC as a means for backup then go for it.

Hope this helps.

Wahey. I got one right.

As you know. I personally didn't find much on BTV that I would have liked to archive. There were however, a couple of special interest DVDs that were perminantly there but tucked away in the programme guide, away from the mainstream, I forget where. These were on the history of motorcycling and home winemaking. They were free of Macrovision and I archived them via my Pinnacle Dazzle 170 without any problem. I have no doubt that movies would have been a problem though.

But I agree. A USB capture solution would be FAR less grief than trying to use what's stored on the HDD. And I know that from personal experience.

[stuntmaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MostynDS

Wahey. I got one right.

As you know. I personally didn't find much on BTV that I would have liked to archive. There were however, a couple of special interest DVDs that were perminantly there but tucked away in the programme guide, away from the mainstream, I forget where. These were on the history of motorcycling and home winemaking. They were free of Macrovision and I archived them via my Pinnacle Dazzle 170 without any problem. I have no doubt that movies would have been a problem though.

But I agree. A USB capture solution would be FAR less grief than trying to use what's stored on the HDD. And I know that from personal experience.

yep deffo.